Horrific: Baby Giraffe Was Killed and Fed to Lions in Front of Children at a Zoo

Warning: graphic photos

Visitors to the Copenhagen zoo who wanted to see some wildlife got QUITE an eyeful this past weekend. Marius, a perfectly healthy 18-month-old giraffe was killed with a bolt pistol to prevent giraffes from inbreeding.

Visitors, including little children, were invited to watch while the giraffe was skinned and fed to lions as a scientific educational experience.

The decision to kill Marius has outraged animal lovers worldwide. Thousands had signed a petition to stop the killing. The zoo turned down offers from other zoos to take him and a wealthy private individual who had offered to buy him, the Associated Press reports.

"I'm actually proud because I think we have given children a huge understanding of the anatomy of a giraffe that they wouldn't have had from watching a giraffe in a photo," zoo spokesperson Stenbaek Bro told the AP.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria supported the zoo's decision to "humanely put the animal down and believes strongly in the need for genetic and demographic management within animals in human care," the AP wrote.

There are some "educational opportunities" that have an age requirement. I saw the picture that contained children much to young for this "educational opportunity"! My 8 year old daughter would be traumatized if she had witnessed this! The reason given for killing this giraffe would have been nil by sending him to another zoo world wide or even profit the zoo by selling him to the man that offered, both to save his life. Killing him was useless and cruel because of their reason. These other viable options should have been used!

I don't understand why it would traumatize her. 8 year olds here take part in deer cleaning all the time. The only difference is that you taught your child to be traumatized rather than to deal with it as a natural part of life.

Not criticizing you at all by the way. It's your choice to teach your children as you wish.

I agree, this is a sorry excuse for a killing. As for the children, there is enough evidence to suggest seeing something traumatic like that is just enough to create blood lust or dare I say a future serial killer. I cannot imagine this being a family event! Shame on them all.

@cdman Yes, that's true too, but hunting, killing and then dressing out a deer with the family - to feed the family, is not the same. Zoos are a special place for children, where animals are adored and considered magical. Now look at this with a child's eye and there's your trauma!

Sad to say the reality is all zoos kill, it's just a front row seat to the killing is new. Seeing a perfectly healthy animal killed so casually, when there were other options, is sickening. Seeing the giraffe butchered to feed other animals seemed like 'overkill' for real, as if to glorify their decision and show their greatness.

I am surprised a zoo did this, but it is part of life. The giraffe was killed humanely, and fed to the other animals. How different is that from hunting a deer to feed your family? It's not like giraffes are never eaten in the wild.

@cdman Like I said it happens all the time in zoos, so perhaps credit should be given to this one for not continuing the lie. I told you it's not so different from a hunted deer or a family cow raised to eventually fill a freezer, EXCEPT for the fact that children think of zoos as special, where animals are magical and protected. I don't hold the zoo responsible for any family who brought their children, but I do wonder how many of those children will come away shattered inside, if only a little bit. Sure they all deserve to know the truth, but then we all know how that goes when parents are left to explain sex to their kids . . .

Just another injection of mind numbing exposure into the vein of humanity. How much inbreeding happens in the wild anyway? And how many lions carry bolt pistols? Zoos are artificial environments created by man for his own personal enjoyment and financial gain. I would hardly call this a learning experience. More like a gratuitous live version of Faces of Death, which pretty much sums up every day in this country now.

@CommonSense then they would still have to feed it, house it, protect it, provide a doctor for it, and then there is the matter of once less meal for the lions and one less learning experience for the kidos.

That's humans for ya! Don't they have a morning after pill or abortive procedures so that a fully sentient being is not "eliminated" in this fashion? Educational for kids it is, but it is also emotionally traumatizing for those not accustomed to viewing the slaughtering of animals. The work gruesome comes to mind.

From a strictly political point of view it was ridiculous. I doubt if many of the children who watched will ever want to visit a zoo again and may even become antagonistic toward zoo funding in the future. The killing of the animal was probably the right thing to do for the health and future of this species. My complaint is, the obnoxious idea that this is educational, is ridiculous, after all how many times are children in the Netherlands going to witness lions eating the carcass of giraffe again.

What graphic photos? I've seen far worse on Animal Planet. They were INVITED to watch not forced. Do people not realize that animals eat each other in the wild?? Lions eating a giraffe is a big deal?? It was for educational purposes, and no one had to watch if they didn't want to. I don't get the problem here.

Sheltering children from the harsh realities of nature doesn't do them any favors. I find it amusing that people show outrage over the death of a giraffe, particularly the people who live in countries where millions of cattle and other livestock are herded through slaughterhouses every year.

The thing is, it would have been more educational to let the lion stalk and slowly kill it then tossing a giraffe into a lions den after killing it with a bolt gun. There was no point in killing it when several zoos offered to take it and a private citizen offered to buy it. What did the kids learn? Oh, lions ear meat. They could have easilyt just told the kids that.

@bleakoutlook Something has to be killed in order for the lions to eat. And while this is usually "behind the scenes", it is common for zoos to do this. The lions are adapted for specific prey. They must be able to tear into the flesh with their claws and rip with their teeth in order to remain healthy; something that can't be obtained by eating chickens or cubed beef every day.

The smaller zoos and habitats operate on a more questionable scale. They often work with "animal shelters", and cats and dogs that have not been "adopted out" soon becomes the next meal, especially in vivariums and other herpetology centers.

I don't think it is an "outrage", but I truly don't understand the motivation for the killing. I read about the "inbreeding" problem, but that makes no sense because giraffes can be "fixed" like other animals. Didn't want to feed it? Well, a private individual offered good money to take it off their hands. I don't have a problem that, once killed, it was fed to the lions (although they might have done it when the zoo was closed to avert controversy). It just seems a senseless killing in the first place.

These children were not from Africa, and there is no breakdown given as to how many of them were being brought up on a farm. To a child that is not used to this kind of event, it must have been horrifying ... it horrifies me, and I wasn't even there. The fact that an endangered species for which there were other options was killed in this brutal, bloody fashion makes me sick. However, I'm willing to put aside my squeamishness and provide the same untimely end for any one of the zoo officials who feel that they are as expendable as that giraffe.

@Cicely53 So not an 'endangered' species. All the children were volunteers, and from the video, most seemed to think it was educational. Meat is meat. Lions eat it. So do I, but I'm honest enough to have killed and butchered my own. You may content yourself with imagining it comes on foam trays in plastic wrap to divorce your appetite from the 'icky' truth, but that's intellectually dishonest. If you can't kill it, you shouldn't eat it.

The breeding pool in the world's zoos is very well monitored, and due to past inbreeding, any progeny of this individual would have weakened the stock and led to poorer quality giraffes. They made room for another giraffe who's breeding could do the opposite, helping to insure the survival of the species. No zoo has a enough money to support an animal that has to be sterilized and can't contribute, and the decision to NOT sell him to a circus or let him exist as an exotic pet is one I agree with.

How young were the kids? At say about ten, I wouldn't have a problem with it. At that age my kids knew that the meat they were eating was once alive. In fact that's probably why my daughter wanted to be a surgeon.

I knew much younger than that... I've got pictures of me bottle feeding calves in diapers... and my parents made it perfectly clear what was going to happen to those calves... I watched an autopsy be done on a cow when I was 5... Now that I think about it that may explain why I'm a borderline psychopath...

@Zazziness I have eaten cows, pigs, cows, chicken and deer as a child that I saw killed and butchered in front of me. I was killing and cleaning small game as a child without any adult supervision at all. Unfortunately there was not a lot of wild giraffe, or giraffe farms in the areas I grew up.

we all understand where meat comes from.... then what is the point of this disgusting act in front of children???? poor taste.. PIGS.. shoot the azz who shot the giraffe and explain to the children, this is what happens in murder..